Before I begin my review of Wayne Wang’s film concerning a missing man and the Chinese-American population’s problems of societal integration, I would like to state that
I truly disliked this movie. [I was educationally forced to watch this movie in order to pass a course I just took in international communications] As I attempt to review this film, I'll also explain my lack of interest in the movie in an effort to explain my feelings in a more “professional”
manner. With that taken care of, on to the review...

"Chan is Missing" is set in San Francisco, California’s Chinatown during the late 1970’s/early 1980’s. Chan is a Chinese immigrant whom has gone missing with over
$2,000.00 in cash that was given to him by aspiring taxi cab driver Jo [Wood Moy], and his Chinese-American nephew, Steve [Marc Hayashi]. The money was supposed to be
used to give them the proper papers and identification cards that the two men would need in order to drive their taxis legally in America, but for some unknown reason, Chan has taken their money and disappeared without a trace. The two men decide to do a little “investigating” of their own, as the police are not interested in finding a missing person. Their search leads them all over Chinatown, but despite the fact that they doggedly stay on Chan’s trail and they get their money back, they never find Chan or fully solved the mystery behind his disappearance.

Culturally, Chan is Missing offers a very unique view of life within the city blocks of San Francisico’s famed Chinatown, that is probably very similar to many other North
American Chinatowns, such as the one located in Los Angeles, New York, Seattle, and Montreal, Canada; to name a few. As the movie, was set on location and not on a set that
was made up to imitate the real Chinatown, viewers are able to see actual shops and vendors without any type of glossing-over or editing. This technique allows the viewer to feel almost as if they, too, are walking the streets of Chinatown in search of the missing Mr. Chan, plus this also offers an air of authenticity to the concept of the actors being in their own little world within the greater area of a “foreign city”.

The fact that all of the actors and actresses are Asian also lends a hand to this authenticity because it shows that not very many people of other races venture into
Chinatown. In the opening scenes, Jo is musing about the few non-Asian customers he has driven and at one point states (mentally) that he can gauge exactly how long it takes each of his non-Asian patrons to ask him “So... where’s the best place to eat in Chinatown?”. It
is this question that shows the ethnic distance the residents of Chinatown and everyone outside of the dragon gates, and it is this separation that is emphasized by director Wayne Wang throughout the film - more so than the revealing of what has happened to Chan.
Despite the fact that the movie is supposed to be about two men who leave no stone unturned in their pursuit of a man who has run off with their money, the script deals
more with how the Chinese people (and possibly those of other Asian groups) are having trouble assimilating into the American way of life. Chan is an immigrant who had a lot of power and money when he lived in China, but after he moved himself and his family to San Francisco, he was unable to find the type of job that he used to have. As a result, his marital life is undone; his wife neither knows where he has gone nor does she seems to care, his savings are almost depleted, and he is possibly on the run from the police because of a murder that occurred between two older Chinese men who were involved in two different political parties. Chan’s guilt or innocence is never revealed in the script, but Jo’s own convictions lead him to believe that Chan is somehow involved in the incident that caused the murder and possibly may have been the murderer of the other older man. I suppose the guilt/innocence factor was never a real concern for the director, but I think that he may have also wanted each member of the audience to draw their own conclusions as to the outcome of this issue.

If there was anything that I liked about this film, it would have to be the camera angles used to bring about the feel of being in Chinatown. The camera is never trained to
take “third person shots” - that is, sequences where the viewer does not feel actively involved in the film. The camera, instead, acts as another person throughout the entire film. It even moves in such as way as to mimic a person tilting their head or turning to look in an opposite direction. Since many of the scenes were shot as either close-ups, medium-shots, and extreme close-ups, it is very easy for the viewer to feel as if they are actually in the film as a lead character or a supporting cast member. Personally, I felt that this gave the film its “spark” because it felt as if I had stepped into a virtual reality
sequence and my head was what was moving the camera. I think had the actors and actresses had some better dramatic training and stated their lines a lot better than they originally did, it might have helped the film a lot. Instead
of putting some feeling and “oomph” behind their lines, most of the people delivered their lines in either a semi-monotone or stumbled through the readings as if they had no clue as to what they were supposed to be saying; and still some seemed to lose track of their lines. Worse yet, were the ones who “motor-mouthed” their way through their lines

Personally, I feel that Chan is Missing is a waste of film. With the exception of the little dopey Jo character, there was not an inspiring character in the entire film. The plot is very thin and is not effectively carried out at all. The soundtrack is nowhere as culturally fitting as say, the soundtrack for "Monsoon Wedding" or "Bend it Like Beckham" - "Chan"’s soundtrack is a mish-mash of music from other sections of the world, like the Latino music playing at the senior center’s dance hour. Truthfully, this should bot have even been a “feature film”, but a documentary because of the amount of political speeches that were placed throughout the script. Had this been overseen by PBS, many of the glitches could have been addressed and some “polishing” could have been projected by the actors. In
closing, as a minority, I can appreciate the director’s desire to address the issue of cultural assimilation and understanding, but watching Wayne Wang’s attempt at bringing this problem to light was painful. If I ever find myself captured by renegade wackos and my choice of torture is between watching "Chan is Missing" or Chinese water torture - I’ll gladly choose the water torture. Hopefully, it would be much more entertaining!

Recommended:
No

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: None of the Above
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older